Intimate relationships with significant others are culturally constructed as a core adult life task, something providing a scaffold for life once found. It is often difficulty in these relationships that emerges in the therapy room as part of, or indeed central to problems in living.
‘Love,’ however we define it, is typically invoked as the tie that binds, the glue holding people together relationally. Gaining clarity with such a vast, slippery concept is challenging. If part of our therapeutic role is to support clients to reach increased clarity and insight, we must ourselves as practitioners attempt to do so with the most challenging concepts.
This workshop, split over two parts, expands on a project developed during the MSc Counselling programme at Abertay University. It aims to explore different psychological and psychotherapeutic perspectives on love relevant to therapeutic practice. This can enhance the building of shared understanding with clients, when love emerges in the room.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- Expanded vocabulary and conceptual reference points for working with love and connection in relationships.
- Deeper understanding of the multitude of meanings that ‘love’ can be used to indicate.
- Reflection on the possibilities of ‘therapeutic love’ being part of your practice.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- This workshop is relevant to those working with clients where relationship issues and problems arise, particularly in intimate relationships with life partners and spouses.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- It will expand the theories and ideas underpinning work with relationship issues.
Course Content
Presenter
Joseph Harney is a Chartered Psychologist (academic) with the British Psychological Society, and a recent graduate of Abertay University’s MSc Counselling programme. He is an experienced teacher of psychology in various educational settings in the UK, and has past lives as both a creative practitioner with music and sound, and community outreach work with vulnerable young adults. Joseph has just relocated to Denmark, where he is establishing a private practice and settling into a new life phase with his long term partner. He remains a keen musician, and loves learning about food, languages, and the beauty of the world’s myriad cultures.
